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Cheapest way to record rehearsal!!!!

S

Skapunkgiz

Jul 8, 2008
31
0
Bristol, UK
#1
Me and the band have just booked into record in October - its a new band so we got 3 days to record 4-5 tracks.

Just looking for a little advice. I always find it easier if i can hear what we got to play most the time. For this reason i want to get a very cheap way of recording (doesent have to be quality driven, just so we can hear the song!!) so each member of the band can listen while at work or driving.

I think this will improve the timing of everything.

Any ideas? Ive toyed with the idea of getting a cheap ambitent mic and plugging it into my laptop at pracitce - problem being - ambient mics are expensive.

Any ideas?!?! any help would be much appreciated :bassist:
 
#3
Just stick a Shure SM57 or (or just about any vocal mic) on a mic stand a bit away from the band. You'll need to get an appropriate lead or adapter to plug into the mic in on your laptop's soundcard. Make sure you use mic in, NOT line in.

Experiment with your mic placement (try facing it away from the band, or in front of a non-reflective surface) to get an acceptable sound and balance, and adjust you input gain appropriately (it'll only take a couple of minutes messing around to get it so it isn't distorting). It won't be CD quality but the results will be fine for what you want.

A hint: if you can't hear a certain instrument or vocals or whatever on the recording, turn everything else DOWN, not that instrument up. It's probably obvious but I thought I'd mention it just in case.

If you're looking for software to record into, Audacity is a great freeware audio recorder/editor and is available for PC Mac and Linux and is perfect for this.

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
 
#5
I'm assuming you have an 1/8" (3.5mm) mic input on the soundcard so for most mics you'd need a balanced fenale XLR to unbalanced mono 1/8" (may be called 3.5mm depending on your country) phono.

You might be able to get an actual lead rather than having to use an adapter. Or get someone to make it up for you. Just remember which two of the three legs of the balanced output have to be shorted together when going to an unbalanced mono input(I can't remember offhand but the info is easy enough to find).
 
#6
Me and my band actually just use a cheap computer/internet microphone where we record everyone at once using Audacity on a laptop or computer.. The sound isnt too bad, surprisingly.

HTML: 
www.myspace.com/whenembersignite
Listen to the song "Second Heartbeat", thats a good example of how it sounds.. Although i'll warn you, it's heavy metal.

Cheers
 
#7
phatbass said:
Just stick a Shure SM57 or (or just about any vocal mic) on a mic stand a bit away from the band. You'll need to get an appropriate lead or adapter to plug into the mic in on your laptop's soundcard. Make sure you use mic in, NOT line in.

Experiment with your mic placement (try facing it away from the band, or in front of a non-reflective surface) to get an acceptable sound and balance, and adjust you input gain appropriately (it'll only take a couple of minutes messing around to get it so it isn't distorting). It won't be CD quality but the results will be fine for what you want.

A hint: if you can't hear a certain instrument or vocals or whatever on the recording, turn everything else DOWN, not that instrument up. It's probably obvious but I thought I'd mention it just in case.

If you're looking for software to record into, Audacity is a great freeware audio recorder/editor and is available for PC Mac and Linux and is perfect for this.

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Click to expand...

I do this all the time for jams, rehearsals and just recording ideas. Works great! It's actually very pleasantly surprising what kind of recordings you can get with good mic placement and everyone being mindful of their volume! :bassist:
 
#8
Half tempted to try Antihero666's idea - cheers dude.

Record my self by this means with an accoustic bass, seems to work.

Failing that, think ill attempt a vox mic - think i figured out that i already have the connector needed.

Surprising how things slip your mind when you talking to a customer at the same time as typing :) cheers once again!
 
#13
The Zoom H2 is an amazing little device. It is $200, but the sound quality is amazing. I record all of our practices, come home and upload them to sharecow.com and the whole band, or anyone else I want, can access the recordings, download them and burn them to disc within an hour after practice.
Do yourself a favor and do a search on it here in this forum.
 
#14
This thing is amazing. The recordings sound better than the live rehersals (to me). I can't seem to get a bad mix on this thing, it's like there is a little recording engineer inside :smug:

With the price of SD cards so low now, you can record hours and hours. I just bought two 2GB cards for $7 each at NewEgg.

For $200 you really can't go wrong. It even comes with all the accessories you could need (mike stand adapter, power adapter and 512 SD card), which is disturbingly unusual these days...
 
#15
If you have an iPod, there is a real cheap way. The XtremeMac Micro Memo. Basically, it is an attachment to the iPod that has a built in mic or you can use your own mic. Decent quality. If I remember correctly, they are about $30 or so.

The Zoom H2 is definltey what I would recommend if you want a higher quality recording.
 

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